2025 Week 20: Wheels #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

My grandfather John Anderson had a variety of jobs throughout his lifetime as had his father, David. David had started off his working life as a miner and ended it as a fish merchant, but along the way he had been a pony driver and a carting contractor. It is the latter profession that he ended up having in common with his son John, though John had started out as a tinsmith and ended up as a tinsmith!

In both the 1891 and 1901 censuses, John is described as a tinsmith apprentice. However by the time of his first child's birth in 1909, he is a carting contractor, like his father before him. A carting contractor seems to have been a delivery man, using a horse and cart to deliver or move goods about the town. Unfortunately I have no idea what sorts of goods he moved.

Early local 'motor'

Source: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/pictures-people-places-wishaw-during-4923110

However by 1911 he has moved up and 'modernised'. John now describes himself in the census as a 'motorist'. It seems that this too was a 'delivery man' except now he has a motorised vehicle! I have no idea if the vehicle was his or if he was just a driver, but either way, John Anderson seems to have been the first person in my immediate family to have had 'wheels'!

That job didn't last long though. By 1915, when my mum was born, he is listed as a steelworker. By the time of the 1921 census, he has returned to being a tinsmith, being employed in Morton's Engineering Works in Wishaw, one of the largest metal working businesses in Lanarkshire. Morton's had started producing cars and lorries in 1910, so who knows? It could be that his 'wheels' were made locally!

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